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Inspirations For Songwriters (I F S)
IFS aims to INSPIRE YOU into ACTION
2,662 songwriters, music publishers, artists, and music fans receive IFS
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Yesterday I tried out

www.songramp.com

It's super easy to use, songs load quickly and play immediately,
people seem very friendly,
Songramp offers a feature where visitors can listen and write comments about
your songs

http://www.songramp.com/homepage.ez?Who=ande

any songramp.com members out there care to comment
IFS songramp

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Royalties from Cues
by Anders Rasmussen

If a song you wrote or cowrote is performed or played on a Nationally
distributed TV show or Cable show, you may be entitled to receive royalties from
your
PRO. PRO stands for Performing Rights Organization. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are
the three performing rights organizations in the United States. Add a .com to
each and you can visit their websites.

The tricky part is HOW to get your song on a show, but let's assume you've
done that.
What happens next?

The question everyone wants to know is:

How much do songwriters make from having their song performed on a show?

How much you get you get paid depends upon
the following factors:

1) Have you selected a PRO and registered with them?

2) Have you registered the particular song with your PRO?

3) Was the song a featured performance or background music?

4) How many seconds of your song was played?

5) How many reruns did the show have during the quarter?

6) Did the TV or Cable network submit a cue sheet to your PRO?

7) What time slot did the show air? Morning, Afternoon, Primetime, or Late
Night

8) Is all the information entered correctly with the network and your PRO?


For grins asked ASCAP, when are the time slot categories and what does a 2
minute song that's a featured performance on a network cable show would pay per
airing? They told me:

Morning 07:00 12:59 $45
Afternoon 01:00 06:59 $70
Primetime 07:00 12:59 $95
Late Night 01:00 06:59 $25

I hope one day you have the pleasure of hearing your song performed on TV.
Good luck!

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Dear Ande

I recently recieved notification from the Harry Fox agency that from now on
they will be charging a yearly administrative fee on top of the % they take for
collecting mechanicals. They want to charge me $400.

I assume there are other writers out there who have recieved this and feel
its ridiculous. My question is, what are the alternatives to Harry Fox?

thank you,

Not so Mad about Harry

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Dear Not So Mad about Harry,

good to hear from you
My suggestion is to collect mechs yourself
i don't know of any alts but I can ask IFS readers for their comments and
suggestions.

ande

got any comments hit reply and
in the subject field write
IFS Harry

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Austin Songwriters Group SUPPORTS and CELEBRATES Austin area songwriters.
ASG is a professional non profit organization. [501(c)3]

http://www.austinsongwritersgroup.org/

If you want to STAY INFORMED about what ASG is OFFERING it's members and
receive ASG's OFFICIAL announcements, sign up for ASG's email list. Send an
EMPTY
email to
ASGInfo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

you can read ASG's message archive at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASGInfo/messages

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here's an excellent post I found on
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/christianartistsgroup

Subscribe: christianartistsgroup-subscribe@yahoogroups

From: "Humheadfish" <humheadfish@...>

Subject: Reality Check are you ready?

Ten things you must accomplish
before you can be taken seriously!

1. You must be honest with yourself and your talent.
God will lead you in the use and propagation of your talent. You must start
out small (Math 25:21). He knows the desires of your heart, your hopes and
dreams. He will not give you responsibility you are not ready for.

2. You must establish an accountability group.
Every successful Christian artist from 4him to ZoeGirl has one. This is a
group individuals that you meet with on a regular basis. It usually consists of
Pastors, Church Leaders, Friends, and trustworthy Mentors. Your group should be
committed to pray for you, help you make decisions, and support you no matter
what happens. They are your roots to keep you grounded (it is hard to stay
humble when thousands of people tell you everyday how great you are), your
nourishment (in the dessert when you first starting out, and a cool spring when
you
traveled 300 of the last 365 days), and your chastening rod (to keep you from
doing something stupid like divorcing your husband to marry some country
star). Your group must commit to long-term relationship. Your career is for
life.
(1pet 5:5)

3. You must establish a faithful following.
You will not be taken seriously until you have an "established" following.
This is one of the hardest tasks. It is physically, emotionally, and financially
draining. One of the best ways is to establish a "fan club" early on. These
are the "get out the vote" people that have the energy to stuff envelopes,
maintain websites, handle press releases, and can get ten of their friends out
to
every show. People want to be a part of something special. Your job is to make
them feel special and important to you, or your group. One of the best ways
is to guarantee those who help you preferential treatment. For example
Caedmon's Call has an elite group of fans called the Guild. Some members of the
Guild
get special seating, dinner with the band, invitations to pre-show prayer,
etc. The more you can recognize that you need people to succeed, the more you
will realize that being a successful Christian artist has a high call of
responsibility.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice
If you are not practicing at least 8 hours every week you might as well stop
reading this now! The more you can practice the better. On a recent CD project
I told the band if they were to practice 30 hours every week for a month I
would wave my producers fee. I recorded them live at the beginning of the month,
and then at the end of the month. If I were to play the recording you would
swear that it was not the same band. Did they grumble and complain the whole
month? Absolutely! Was it worth it? On their first show after the month a
faithful fan told them "you are no longer a garage band. There is something
different. You have an air of confidence I have never seen before. like Eddy Van
Halen, or something".

5. nuts and bolts of the music business
Ok if you have made it this far it's time to get into the nuts and bolts of
the music business. MONEY! Money is the main bone of contention in CCM. If you
want to be a Christian artist to make money you might as well put a millstone
on your neck right now! Can you make a decent living? Yes! Should you have a
back up income? WITHOUT A DOUBT! Here are some real figures from a 2003 tour.
These are per week figures.

COSTS (this is what you have to pay),
$11,300.00 Production (Sound, Lights, Road crew, trucking included no
overdrives),
$7,200.00 Buses per bus that holds 12 people, Bus and Truck drivers got $300
per week and 32 cents a mile (more if they have to drive for more than 8 hours
(called an overdrive)),
$800.00 Front of house engineer
$800.00 Lighting Designer,
$1000.00 Production Manager,
$600.00 Tour Manager plus a percentage of the gross receipts.
$700.00 Hired musicians each (there were four)
$650.00 Merchandising Manger plus a percentage of merchandise sales,
The management company, record company, booking agency, ticket company,
promoter, and the halls that we played in, all took percentages of the ticket
sales. I want you to remember this the next time you plunk down $12 for a
ticket! I
said all of that to demonstrate it takes a lot of money to make a lot of
money. If you are not good with money you better find someone who is. They
better
be someone you trust with your life.

6. You must have a plan.
It is easy to dream about standing in front of 70,000 people while they sing
the lyrics to song you wrote. You can imagine the feeling you will get the
first time you hear your song on the radio. But in order to get there you have
to
have a clearly defined plan. You must have realistic goals. God will help you
but you must get out of the boat! Set expectations for you and your band.
Things like in 5 months we are going to produce a CD. This week we are going to
decide on the name of our band. Next year we want to play Purple Door. Etc

7. Name, what's in a name?
Before you can be taken seriously you must have an easily recognizable name.
Do you think you might go to show to see
Gordon Sumner, Clay Crossnoe, Rebecca Smallbone, or Mike and Jay Weaver?
NO. But you might go see
Sting, Clay Cross, Rebecca St James, or Big Daddy Weave.
I am not a proponent of outlandish stage names. But any marketing guy will
tell you a memorable name is the key to success. Please, Please, Please Google
your name and register it with your state! I cannot tell you how many "East to
West's" there were in CCM but I know of at least four! One of the best ways to
decide on a name is to have a contest. I know one band that changed their
name 8 times in their first year. Once you have one Stick with it for better or
worst.

8. Don't Change
If you want to put a death nail in your career change a band member every 2
or three months. I know that one of the criteria to be signed to a label is the
band must have been in its current condition for at least 3 years. This can
apply to singer songwriters as well. Dramatic changes in musical styles will
pigeonhole you as a one hit wonder!

9. Copyright!!!
There are plenty of resources on the web to help you copyright your material.
Don't let your best friend hear a one note of un-copyrighted material. He
could turn around and sell it on you! It is important to establish right off the
bat who owns what! Nothing will end a run faster than fighting amongst
yourselves over who got paid what royalty over whose song! If you are a band
Copyright as a band that way everyone will get paid equally. In the same vain
Don't be
afraid to sell your songs That's how Michael W. Smith, and Michelle Tumes got
their start.

10. BE Yourself.
Don't try to be like this guy, that girl, or that group. Record companies are
looking for originality. If you sound too much like someone else they will
either shelve you because you are a threat to something they have already
invested in, or ignore you cause they already got one! Play what comes to your
heart. Music you enjoy. Stop and think for a moment ok that's long enough..
Imagine
for a moment what it is really like to have a number one hit..do you realize
you are going to have to play that song EXACTLY AS IT WAS RECORED for the rest
of your public life. Every night sometimes three or four times a day. IN
closing I wanted to highlight what it is really like on the road. First you live
in a bunk that is 6 feet long, 3 feet wide, 2 feet high. If you need to go
number 2 you can't because defecating is not allowed on the bus. The bus only
stops when it has to, not when you need to. You share very close living quarters
with eleven other people that may or may not like you. You have no choice in
what you eat. You must eat what is placed before you or risk offending your
host. A case in point, some yahoo from the home office specified "some thing
like
Chicken and Pasta" on our rider for dinner. Guess what we ate for thirty
straight days! It takes over a week for your body to acclimate to sleeping while
in
motion. You must constantly smile and be happy and never ever get angry.
Unless of course you are a rapper then you must be angry all the time! You are
never alone. You are always on stage. One artist lost his career for walking
into
a porn shop. It was an off day someone made a dare. A fan took a picture of
him entering the porn shop. The picture was picked up by the news and voila,
poof, end of career! Imagine for a moment a long trip with your family or youth
group. Ok you know that trapped feeling that you have. Now imagine having that
feeling every day for several months. When you finally do get home your body
takes another week to readjust to sleeping while not moving. But that's ok
because you spend every waking moment at the studio writing the next album so
you
can go out and do it again in a few months. You might think that I am trying
to scare you out of this crazy idea that you have. No, I am trying to give you
a small preview. If you don't like people, traveling (note the most sites you
get see when touring is the 25 yards between the bus and the venue),
politics, stalkers, and oh yes I almost forgot spiritual attack, than stop now
and
don't look back(take the blue pill). If the thought of watching a 300 pound
biker
fall under conviction of the Holy Spirit, transforming him into a balling
black leather mess appeals to you. Or if sacrificing all that you have to see
one
person saved at one of your concerts. Than you are ready to be taken
seriously (take the red pill).

May our Heavenly Father
grant you clear conviction,
Increase your talent, and
give you peace.


YFC Humheadfish

Write on!

Ande Rasmussen
Editor and Publisher of I F S, Inspirations For Songwriters

Contact info is:

Ande Rasmussen
835 Martindale Falls
Martindale, TX 78655

AndeRasmussen@...
512-217-2728 cell

You can read my Bio at:
http://hometown.aol.com/anderasmussen/myhomepage/profile.html

You can hear a few of my tunes at:
http://www.soundclick.com/anders

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I F S stands for Inspirations for Songwriters, I F S is an ezine for
songwriters filled with inspirational and practical information about the art,
craft,
and business of songwriting. We want to help YOU become a more successful
songwriter.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
The entire text of
"Inspirations for Songwriters"
© 2004 Anders Rasmussen